On Team Daisy
by bsloths
Summary: Casey decides to do something nice for Derek. Who knew it would turn the keener into queen of the rink? Oneshot. Dasey.


Hello!

I can't believe I'm typing this. I really thought my fic-writing days were over. In 2013, right after I posted my last fic, I got a job that involved a lot of writing, so I never felt like writing at home. I slowly lost touch with the Dasey fandom, and I figured that chapter in my life was closed. I will always be so grateful to this show and this ship for helping me meet some amazing people—in person, on the phone, and online.

And then in 2016 I turned thirty, developed a severe anxiety disorder, and my life kind of fell apart. As I was picking up the pieces, I realized that writing fic was something that I had to make time to do for myself. When I'm writing, my problems are the furthest thing from my mind. So I went back to it.

Almost three years later, thanks to the Oopsy Dasey podcast, I think I'm ready to write for an audience again. If you haven't yet, you need to listen to this podcast. Right now. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, YouTube … go to the Tumblr (called Dasey) or Twitter (oopsydaseypod) and you'll find out how to listen. It has completely rekindled my love of _Life With Derek_. So a big thank you to hosts Ashley and Vanessa for that.

**Story notes:** I know very little about hockey, which will soon become apparent. I have no idea where the CN Tower thing came from—my brain goes to bizarre places when I'm writing, but I just follow it and see where it leads. And it's been ages since I've watched the series, so I hope my characterizations are okay. I'm re-watching Season 1 now along with Oopsy Dasey, so this is very influenced by watching that season again.

I don't know if inspiration for a fic will strike again, or that I will be able to read much fic, or what will happen next. I've been working on a longer story that I might post in a few months. This fic, actually, was a half-joking request in Episode 11 of Oopsy Dasey.

I hope you like it!

-Brandi

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Life With Derek or its characters, nor do I intend to make any money from this fan work.

**On Team Daisy**

Casey couldn't wait to take out her mouthguard. It was giving her flashbacks to having a retainer in grade nine. She slurped back the spit that had gathered behind it and put her focus back on the game, which was happening at an increasingly frantic pace all around her. The Daisies were down by two, and they were facing their toughest rivals.

"Casey!" Sam called, shooting the puck to her. Casey stopped it easily with her stick and maneuvered it past the other team's defense, shoulder-checking them just like Sam had taught her.

The goalie was ready for her, and she knew she'd never make it with him seeing her coming. So she locked eyes with Sam across the rink and slapped the puck over to him. He scored just as the goalie dove, missing the puck by inches.

A cheer went up among the smattering of friends and family in the rink, and Casey beamed at Sam as he skated over to her, his glove up for a high five.

A few minutes later, the buzzer signaling the end of the third period sounded, and the Daisies skated, heads hanging, to the center of the rink to shake hands with the other team.

"Don't be discouraged. We did great," Coach Ted, who was their goalie, told them as they headed into the locker room area. "It's only the second game of the season, and our new recruit is still learning." He smiled at Casey. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Coach," Casey said after sliding the gooey mouthguard out. _Finally._ She pulled off her helmet and smoothed back her hair, which she'd braided tightly in two tails and pinned to her head. She hated how in the movies, female players would have their hair long and loose. There was no way she was going to risk hair flying into her eyes while trying to play.

"Nice look, Princess Leia," Sam joked as he came up next to her. They paused at the entrance to the locker rooms.

"Help me, Sammy Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope," she teased back. He slugged her on the arm and headed left, while she turned right toward the women's locker room.

Being the only woman on the team was kind of cool, in a way, but she wished she could have someone to chat with as she got changed. Especially today, when she had actually made an assist!

She unlaced her skates first, then took off the rest of her gear. To her surprise, hockey had come pretty naturally to her. She had been passable on skates before, but after almost a month of training and practice, and two games under her belt, she was getting pretty confident.

Her phone buzzed. _Home late as usual. Will have dinner here_, Derek texted.

"Home" was Toronto, where she and Derek were sharing a rented house with Sam and his boyfriend Jeff. Sam had come out as bi in university, and Casey adored Jeff, who was also bi. Derek hated that they were close. She had a feeling he was a little jealous, but that was such a caveman attitude. Jeff was happily committed to Sam. Casey had hoped for a while now that this will-they-won't-they thing she and Derek had been doing since university was going to turn into a will-they, finally, but they just didn't have the time to figure it out right now. Casey had taken a gap year between graduating from Queen's University and going to the University of Toronto law school, so she was substitute teaching to make money and getting a head start on studying every day.

And "here" was the set of _Degrassi: Yes, There Is Yet Another Generation_, where Derek was working as a P.A. He had made some film contacts at Queen's, and one of them had invited him to work on the show to get on-set experience in Toronto. The pay was crap and the hours were insane—hence the need for so many roommates—but Derek was deliriously happy. He had never worked harder in his life. Go figure. When it was something he truly cared about, he was all in.

Speaking of things he cared about, he had been bummed to have to give up the community hockey league he had signed up for earlier that year. It was very low-key—they had a player-coach in Ted, they only played games once every other week, and they practiced two nights a week. Sam had been playing since he discovered the league during his first year at U of T, and he was excited to recruit Derek.

Derek had no idea Casey was playing in his place. When Derek had called to cancel because of getting _Degrassi_, she had heard how sad he sounded and did something very unCaseylike—she impulsively grabbed his phone when he wasn't looking, shut herself in her room, called back, and asked if she could play instead. Weeks of anxiety and waves of regret followed, but she stayed strong and decided this would be good for her.

Sam's jaw had dropped when she'd shown up to the first practice, and she'd explained that it was a present for Derek. While she had the time, she would play for him, and then next year, he could replace her. It was a great plan, and Sam was all for it.

He had gotten good at keeping secrets, Casey knew, because she had spent a lot of time trying to unpack her feelings for Derek with him. They had always been kind of flirty, she acknowledged, but she didn't know if it meant anything. She'd started to feel like maybe there was something between them, but it was too hard to tell what Derek was thinking because they spent half their time getting on each other's nerves or arguing. And she had to get over the whole we-are-stepsiblings thing, which was actually kind of easy to forget about now that they weren't living with their parents. Did she really want to ruin the friendship they sort of had by confessing feelings she wasn't sure about herself, let alone if Derek felt them too? Sam had been a sympathetic ear. Sometimes she let herself wonder if _Derek _had told _him _anything about his feelings, but she'd never had the courage to ask.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

It was late that night when Derek plopped down in bed. She was reading on her Kindle, the glowing light the only thing illuminating his face as he scooted next to her and dipped his chin onto her shoulder.

"Der-ek!" She shoved him off her one-handed and went back to reading, biting back a smile at his constant need to invade her personal space.

"Just wanted to see what was so fascinating. Jaywalking laws? Learning about all the places it's illegal to chew gum in public?"

Casey put down the Kindle. "The new Emily Giffin, actually. It's about—"

"Don't care," Derek grunted, turning over and hogging the blanket.

"Hey!" She snatched it back and turned on the bedside lamp, realizing she wasn't going to get any more reading done tonight now that he was here. He was so needy sometimes. "You could just go sleep in your own bed, you know."

"And get woken up at five a.m. when Jeff leaves for work? No thanks."

The house only had two bedrooms upstairs. Derek had drawn the short straw and was sleeping in the downstairs den, but it had a flimsy sliding door, so he would hear (and smell) people making breakfast in the kitchen.

"Derek, you get up at six. You could just, you know, adjust and get up too."

"I've already lost my bedroom in London to Simon and a bedroom here to you three, so I'm not giving up anything else. That extra hour is mine." He crossed his arms and made a face.

"You are such a baby." Casey wondered, not for the first time, why she didn't just ignore him when he got like this. Not that she would have reacted any better to getting the worst bedroom, of course, so she understood. "Be quiet or I'll kick you out."

"Fine." He turned back over and pretended to sleep, but his hand crept back over to her side and grabbed the edge of the blanket. She saw it coming and ripped the blanket out of his grip. Somehow that turned into a wrestling match, and they finally stopped, breathing heavily and glaring at each other, Casey hanging over the edge of the bed using only her arm strength to keep herself upright. She was lucky she had finally adjusted to all of the new muscles she was using playing hockey, because if it had been just a week ago, she probably would have been sore after such a display.

Derek called a truce and grabbed her hands to pull her back up onto the bed. "Sorry," he mumbled, blushing as their hands stayed interlocked for a moment longer than necessary.

"We have to stop doing this. We're not kids anymore," Casey said.

Derek held up his hands, surrendering. "I know, I know."

They settled back into their spots, and, Casey noticed, Derek was careful to arrange the blanket equally over both of them.

"Hey, we haven't seen each other in like a week," he said. "How was your day? Did you sub?"

"Grade four. They were really cute." She grabbed her phone and showed him photos of the birdhouses they had been working on building. It made her squirm inside to know she couldn't talk about anything else—it was tough to keep something as exciting as an assisted goal a secret from the person she told almost everything to. But she and Sam had gone out to dinner to celebrate, so she would just have to be content with that. Derek was listening to her intently, which was surprising because he was usually too tired to do more than grunt good night when he came home, if she was even awake when he did. She never should have let him start sleeping with her, but she couldn't help it—she missed him, and this was a way to feel closer. "How is _Degrassi_ going?"

Derek beamed. "It's so cool. I got to spend an hour shadowing the D.P. today. She gave me lots of good advice."

"That's the cameraperson, right?"

"Yeah. The rest of the time was like, getting coffee, rounding up actors, that kind of stuff. But it's so worth it for times like that, you know?"

"I'm so happy for you."

They settled down to sleep a few minutes later, and she wondered for the millionth time if he loved falling asleep to the sound of her breathing as much as she did to his.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

Every member of team Daisy cringed in unison as Casey came down hard on her butt. Even though her padding, pain shot up her pelvis and her breath was knocked out of her. Ted, who was closest, skated over to help her up.

"That was some fall. You okay?"

Casey's eyes were watering from the shooting pain. "Yeah, I never should have taken that turn so fast, I …" She winced as she tried to move.

Ted caught her arm to support her. "Go get some ice, and there's a round pillow in the locker room you can sit on. Sam, help her?"

Sam nodded and took Casey's arm gingerly, guiding her to the edge of the rink. "I bruised by butt once. Hurts like hell," he said sympathetically. Casey could only nod.

In the women's locker room, he helped her peel off her leg padding and she sighed as she sank onto the bundle of ice he had fixed. "Thanks." She pointed to her locker. "Could you bring me my phone? I'm going to sit out the rest of practice."

"Good idea. Oh, what are we telling Derek?"

"Telling Derek?" She looked at him blankly.

"About why you'll have to ice your butt tonight."

"I don't think he'll notice, since I'm always in bed by the time he gets home."

Sam very politely didn't acknowledge the fact that he knew Derek had been sleeping in Casey's bed, but their eyes met conspiratorially anyway. "Case, he's home right now. Before practice he texted me that he was picking up dinner for everyone, since they were ahead of schedule or something and let him go early."

Casey looked down at her phone, which Sam had just retrieved. "Shoot. He texted me too. I didn't see it before." She raised her eyebrows. "Where does he think I am? I have to come up with a story."

"Just say you were at the library studying."

Casey laughed. "Of course. And I can say I fell off the ladder trying to reach a book on the top shelf."

"Perfect!" Sam made sure she was comfortable before heading back to practice.

Casey leaned against the wall and tried not to move. She realized she was disappointed she couldn't finish practice. She was actually really enjoying playing hockey. Derek was going to be shocked.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

One Sunday Derek had off, he and Casey went into the city proper with Sam and Jeff to do some exploring. Neither of them had had much time for sightseeing since they'd gotten to Toronto, and they were eager to take advantage of a beautiful day to go up the CN Tower.

It seems everyone else in the area had the same idea, and they were packed in like sardines when they reached the top. Before they knew it, they had been pushed along toward the glass floor, and Jeff promptly freaked out.

"I can't, I can't," he whimpered as they edged closer to the front of the line.

Sam rubbed his shoulders. "You got this. I'll be right here."

Casey grabbed his hand. "I'm scared too. Let's all go together." She held out her other hand to Derek and he took it, rolling his shoulders and looking a little bored. Casey pretended not to notice how rude he was being. It wouldn't kill him to show a little compassion.

Sam took Jeff's other hand, and they inched along. "Your turn," the attendant said all too quickly, and then there they were, standing above Toronto with nothing but a pane (okay, a very thick pane) of glass between them. Jeff immediately sank to his knees, shaking too badly to be able to stand. Casey and Sam knelt down next to him, rubbing his back and helping him regulate his breathing.

"I didn't know you were scared of heights," Sam said kindly.

"I-I didn't, either, until just now." He let out a shaky breath. "I can't really look down. But this is amazing."

"Selfie to prove we did it?" Casey pulled out her phone and looked up to call Derek over. But he wasn't there. "Where'd he go?"

Sam looked up too. "Huh. I know Derek can be weird about heights, but I thought for sure he'd put on a brave face and just do it."

Casey felt a stomach punch of guilt. "I should have realized earlier when he got awkward. He was nervous." She patted Jeff's shoulder and stood up to look for Derek, then immediately sank back down after making the mistake of looking through the glass. "Whoa."

"Take your time and crawl off if you need to," the attendant said.

Casey managed a smile at Sam and Jeff and then crawled back to solid floor.

Derek was in the far corner, staring out over the city with his eyebrows arched and mouth in a thin line. Casey rushed up to him and grabbed his arm. "Derek, are you okay? Did you freak out about the glass? I kind of did." She searched his face, but he just tugged his arm away and turned back to looking outside. "It's nothing to be ashamed of; lots of people can't handle heights."

He whirled on her, frowning. "I'm fine."

Casey folded her arms. "You are _not_ fine. Tell me why you're so annoyed."

"Because of you!" he huffed.

"Me? What did I do?"

Derek shook his head. "Never mind."

"You are infuriating. Just talk to me!" She tugged on his arm again. "I'm so sick of fighting with you all the time."

He let out a barking laugh. "That's what we do, Casey. We fight. It's our thing."

Casey felt like stamping her foot and throwing a tantrum. She let a little of her frustration out, just enough to whine, "Who said?" She composed herself and looked him right in the eye. "Why do we have to keep falling into the same patterns as when we were teenagers? We can decide it's not _our thing_ anymore. We can!"

Derek stared at her, expression unreadable. "I was jealous," he finally said, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Casey hadn't been prepared for that answer. Then it dawned on her. "You _are _jealous! Of me and Jeff!?" She was amazed that her hunch had been right. "You know there's nothing between us. He's with Sam—"

Derek rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. "I meant, I was jealous of the attention."

This threw Casey for another loop. "_What_?"

"Sam was standing right there. He was helping Jeff. I wanted you to help _me_. It's embarrassing, okay?"

Casey stared at him in amazement. It was rare for him to be so vulnerable with her, and she took a moment to appreciate that, even though he was being a jerk about it. She grabbed his hands. "I'm not going to apologize for helping my friend. You need to tell me when you need something. I can't read your mind." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Can't you?" He smirked, and she didn't know what to do with that. It was so hot when he smirked.

Just then, Sam and Jeff appeared out of the crowd. "There you guys are! Is everything okay?" Sam asked.

Casey dropped Derek's hands, missing Sam and Jeff eyeing each other when they realized they'd ruined the moment. "It's fine. We're going to try again. Mind if we get back in line?"

Jeff and Sam agreed and headed in the opposite direction to take in more cityscape views. Derek and Casey made their way back over to the line for the glass floor. He was smashed up behind her in the throng of people, so he put his hands on her waist to make sure they stayed together. She tried to ignore the fact that her whole body was screaming for her to spin around and kiss him.

At the front of the line, they crawled onto the floor together, Casey reminding Derek to breathe and counting to three in unison before they both looked down. Derek clung to her, but he was grinning so wide she thought her heart would burst.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

The hockey season had flown by. The Daisies were winning some games, and Casey had made a few more assists with Sam. The last game was that Saturday, and she knew Derek was off work, so on Wednesday morning, she talked it over with Sam and they decided to surprise him at the game.

That night, she was back from substituting and was just starting to think about how to trick him into going when Derek burst into the living room, home at a reasonable time.

"What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously. Casey tried to make her face blank, but she knew she was blushing at being caught mid-thought.

"Nothing, just studying." She held up the law book that had fortunately been on the coffee table.

"Uh-huh." He side-eyed her as he came to sit next to her on the couch. "Do you have any plans this weekend?"

Casey tried to compose herself. She had made it this long—she couldn't give away her surprise now. She cleared her throat. "I do, yeah, on Saturday."

"Oh. I was hoping we could hang out."

"We can!" _Calm down_, she told herself. "I mean …" She didn't have a clue what to say next. Her heart was pounding.

"Whatever, Space Case." He rolled his eyes. "Did you have too much caffeine today or something?"

Her phone buzzed, making them both jump. She snatched it from the couch, but not before Derek saw the display. "Ted? Who's Ted?" He scrunched up his face. "Are you going out with him on Saturday?"

Casey didn't open Ted's text in front of Derek, because of course it would be about the game. "No—not that it's any of your business."

Derek glowered. "What if I want it to be my business?"

Casey threw her phone at him. "Derek, what did I tell you about telling it to me straight?!" She was so exasperated with him. He either said these things because he liked riling her up, or he was honestly flirting with her. She hoped it was the latter, but like she'd told him, she couldn't read his mind!

He fished her phone off of his shirt where it had landed and put it on the coffee table. "You're right. I should tell you—"

He didn't get to finish the sentence, much to Casey's annoyance, because Sam and Jeff burst in, excited about a promotion Sam had gotten at work and brandishing champagne.

They went out to dinner to celebrate, and when they got back Derek got a call from work asking for help with some last-minute thing, so he had to run errands the rest of the night.

Which meant that by the time Derek got into bed, it was too late to finish their living room conversation, because Casey was asleep.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

Before Casey knew it, she was lacing up her skates for the last time. For this season, at least. She thought she might like to play hockey again one day, maybe even on this team if there was an opening. Derek and Casey playing hockey together—what a crazy thought!

Sam nudged her. "There are Derek and Jeff." He pointed them out in the stands.

Casey glanced at them quickly. She was so nervous, but she felt good about her skills and felt prepared to play well. It had been simple: Sam had asked Derek to come to the game, and luckily he had said he would. Derek hadn't seen much of Casey the rest of the week, so he hadn't gotten a chance to ask her about her Saturday plans … or finish the sentence he'd started on Wednesday.

She tried not to think about that. She had to remember the plan, which was for her to take her helmet off after the first period and skate over to where Derek and Jeff were. Jeff would be telling Derek during the beginning of the game to cheer for number 19, since he was a friend of Sam's. Casey didn't think Derek would recognize her under all the protective clothing, but if he did, that would be fine. Either way, he was in for the surprise of his life.

As she headed to center ice for the faceoff, she reminded herself to stay in the moment. She concentrated on the scraping of ice beneath her skates, the rustling of the padding underneath her jersey, and, ick, the taste of her sticky mouthguard. She wouldn't miss that at all.

The Daisies swiped the puck from the opposing team right away, so Casey didn't have time to think about anything else. She and Sam passed the puck back and forth down the rink, totally in the zone. They shot to score a few times, but the opposing goalie always blocked them. Toward the end of the first period, Casey was being stonewalled by one of the defense, but she managed to get the puck between his skates and whip it over to Sam. He did some quick maneuvers to get the puck closer to the goal, but the defensive line had already moved toward him. He and Casey locked eyes across the rink, and he shot the puck over to her. She had it against her stick and into the goal before the goalie could even turn around.

Ignoring the roar of the small crowd, Casey sought out Derek. He was cheering and clapping along with Jeff and everyone else. He didn't seem to recognize her, not that she stayed turned toward him long enough to be seen clearly. She had scored her first-ever goal … in front of Derek. Sam was screaming "Yes! Yes!" and she glided over to him for a high-five.

The first period buzzer sounded soon after and Casey's heart began thumping in her chest. This was it. She skated to the edge of the ice and saw Jeff pointing her out to Derek. Derek looked down at her, confused. Then she pulled off her helmet and shook out her hair, which she had done up in a messy bun and let loose just for this very moment. She still thought it was sexist when they did it in the movies, but she did it for the look on Derek's face, and it was worth it. His mouth dropped open as they made eye contact. She raised her helmet in the air in a victory pose and Jeff started a chant of "Casey! Casey!" Derek blinked, turned to Jeff, turned back to Casey, and then gave her the sexiest grin she had ever seen.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

Casey's goal was the only score of the game. The Daisies left the ice whooping over their victory. They were all patting Casey on the back and yelling her name.

"He hasn't stopped smiling the whole game," Sam said as they reached the locker rooms. "I kept looking over at him, and he watched you the whole time. You completely blew his mind."

Casey couldn't calm down. She felt giddy and light-headed. She couldn't believe they had pulled this off. "Thanks for all of your training, Sammy. I never would have been able to play without you."

Sam blushed. "It's nothing."

Casey reached to hug him as best they could through their padding. "See you in a few." She turned right, and Sam turned left, and Casey stopped short when she saw Derek leaning against the door, smirking.

Everything she had thought about saying when she saw him completely left her brain. All she could do was stand there and smile so hard her face hurt.

"Mind if I help you out of your gear?" he asked nonchalantly, though she could tell he was jittery too.

She nodded, still not able to speak.

They entered the locker room together, and Derek gave a low whistle. "Holy crap, this place actually smells pretty good." He looked amazed. Casey had been in the men's locker room a few times for various team pep talks, and she knew what he meant. Hers was a perfumery by comparison.

Casey laughed. "Thanks?"

They reached her locker and Derek pulled out her bags, then got to work helping her pull off her mitts one at a time and sit on the bench to unlace her skates. He knelt in front of her and lifted her left foot to untie the laces. She stared down at him, kind of feeling like Cinderella.

He looked up at her. "Casey, you were incredible out there." He slipped off her left skate and motioned for her to lift her right one.

"I don't know about incredible—"

"Caseyyy," he chided. "You were. I am so impressed. That was … I have never had so much fun watching hockey." Putting her skates aside, Derek started to slide her padding down her legs and Casey tried not to hyperventilate at the fact that Derek was literally taking off her pants.

She wiggled the rest of the way out of them, still watching him, enjoying how much he was enjoying this.

He adjusted her leggings over her socks and went to stand, but she reached into her bag for a new pair. "Here."

He raised his eyebrows. "I have to do everything?"

"Yes."

Their eyes met again and they laughed. He changed her socks for her, massaging her feet as he went. Her whole body relaxed into his touch. She tried not to think about how sweaty she was, but Derek didn't seem to mind.

"Jeff wouldn't tell me anything—what made you want to play?" He stood to help her out of her jersey, then her arm padding. She held up her arms for him to pull off her long-sleeve shirt, and she watched him look away as he did it. She had a tank top on over her bra, so the gesture wasn't necessary, but she still appreciated it.

"I wanted to keep your spot on the team. Sweater's in my bag."

He dug around for her sweater, looking confused. "What do you mean?"

"I knew you were upset when you couldn't play this year, so I called the league and signed up in your place. It's really just for fun, so they didn't even care that I'd never played. You can take my spot next year while I'm at U of T." She watched his reaction change to understanding as he slipped the sweater over her head.

He sat next to her. "You did that for me?" He looked almost as surprised as when he had seen her on the ice earlier.

She knotted her hair into a better messy bun, since it had mostly fallen out after she hastily put it back up after first period. "Of course." She turned to face him. "It ended up being for me, too, actually. Turns out, I love hockey." She grinned.

He laughed. "No way. This is unbelievable. Casey, I … thank you. Now I get why Sam said this was his favorite season so far. You …" He trailed off, gazing at her.

She thought she knew what that look meant, but as usual, Derek couldn't express exactly what he was feeling. She hitched her legs up onto the bench and shifted toward him so they were across his lap. She grabbed his face. "Derek. I am so sick of this. And it's not just you. I haven't said anything, either. But we need to start being honest with each other."

Derek had gone white. "Case …" He looked down, lightly rubbing her thigh, his other arm sliding around her back. "Our situation is complicated. I don't think of you as my sister, but I thought you … It's just that …" He was rambling, but she let him go on, since he clearly needed to get this off his chest. "I'm sorry I start arguments instead of talking. I don't know how to deal with … I just didn't want to say something I'd regret if you didn't feel the same—"

"I love you." She cut him off in a rush, knowing she would lose her nerve if she waited too much longer.

"—way. I love you too."

And he kissed her.

**DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC**

When production wrapped on _Degrassi_, Derek surprised everyone by renting rink time for a little two-on-two scrimmage.

Casey was excited to be back on the ice, and she was extra excited to be facing off with Sam against their boyfriends.

"I'm going to destroy you, McDonald!" Derek crowed from the opposite end of the rink as he and Jeff weaved around each other, warming up with figure eights.

"You wish, Venturi!" she called back, smacking sticks with Sam as he whizzed by.

"Take it easy on Jeff," Sam muttered when he came back around. "He kind of sucks at this."

Casey threw him a dirty look. "He does not. I was just out here with him the other day during free skate and I showed him some moves. He's got this."

They all met at the center line, Derek showing off by stopping short and sending ice shavings flying. They ignored him. Sam held the puck aloft. "Five … four … three … two … one …"

He dropped the puck, and the only sound in the rink was the thrashing of sticks as they battled it out.

**THE END**


End file.
